The Judge

I finished climbing another mountain this past week.  My thigh and calf discomfort from the hike the previous week was MOSTLY gone, yet the blisters still had room to heal.  I didn't let it stop me.  Dean took me up on a hike to Diana Lake, just outside of Edgewater BC.  I love being in the outdoors with Dean.  He teaches me about all the birds we see, the dragonflies, the moths and butterflies too.  He knows them all.

 It was to be plus 35 that day, so we headed out early to try to beat some of the afternoon heat.  We drove for just over an hour to the trail head, and then hiked 2 hours in to Diana Lake. There are a number of avalanche paths with beautiful grassy meadows, so grizzlies like to hang around here.  There are places to look at the old logs upturned where these beautiful giants like to dig around for food.  Of course, reading this bit of detail concerned me greatly, as I have a great fear of bears.  I see them on the trail all the time when I'm in the outdoors, yet still an encounter terrifies me.  It didn't help that Dean and I were alone, and it was recommended to hike here in groups due to the high population of grizzlies.  I bought a mini fog horn type thing to blow every now and again, to let the forest critters know that we were in the area.  I never used it.  Dean would shout out "hello bear!" every once in a while, and I would bang my trekking poles together.  We did this especially when we crossed one of the slide areas, as the vegetation was quite high and thick, and it was ideal for the bears to be foraging about. 

The 6.36 km hike and 656 metres in elevation gain into Diana Lake was fairly moderate.  I didn't find it tough at all.  The scenery, the smell of the forest, and sounds of Pinnacle creek that followed us along a lot of the trail made the experience exemplary. We found Diana lake nestled at the foot of Mt Normans steep slopes, with a small bit of glacier left at the base, both full of beautiful shades of greens and blues.

 From here, Dean and I started our way up to......The Judge.  When I say up, I mean UP.  It was 1610 M of elevation gain.  Who needs a trail, right?  Dean thought it would be faster to hike straight up the mountain to the ridge.  Faster maybe, but easier?  NOT!  Wow!!  I mean straight up and steep.  There were a few times I actually started to fall backwards, and had to catch my balance.  We both like to push ourselves and test our limits.  I both pushed and tested my limits this day.  It was tough going straight up to the ridge, as I felt it in my legs and my chest. I didn't realize at the time that the toughest was yet to come, not in a physical sense, but more for my mental state.

We hiked a ways to reach the ridge, and as we got closer to our ascent up to the Judge, I realized that my concern of the grizzlies was very minimal compared to the concern growing about getting to the top.  We could see the surprisingly long ridge and the trail we needed to take.  One section didn't even look wide enough to walk on and it was a very long distance down on either side.  Dean kept assuring me that it is wider than it looks from a distance.  "Do you trust me?", he asked.  "Yes I do".  "You will be OK."  We hiked on, and he was right.  Although I did not have the nerve to look down on either side of the ridge, it was "slightly" wider than it looked from a distance.  At the end of this particular section of the ridge, we started up another one, and then onto the scree slope.  This part put my mental abilities to the test for sure.  It was very steep and very loose.  Every step came with a slight slide down. There was nothing to hang onto.  As we got closer to the top, the scree turned into bigger shards of rock, but still all loose.  I actually crawled through most of it, afraid to stand up.  I got caught up in fear a few times, and had to stop, get my head on straight, self talk myself through it, and when I was ready, keep going.  The next section after this was larger rocks, but still quite loose.  We had to check each rock before we trusted it to hold our weight.  I tried to go for the ones that looked like they were big enough to be really stuck into the earth. I still crawled most of the way, but used these bigger boulders to get a good hand hold.  If my feet slipped, I told myself, I could still hold on.  My biggest fear that kept entering my head was of a rock slide, with me in it. It was this fear, that I had to keep pushing aside, yet keeping fully aware and conscious of my surroundings.  The next and final part of the ascent required we leave our trekking poles behind.  There were large white boulders with beautiful black and green fungi all over them that we had to scramble around, and the poles would just get in the way.  It was still a struggle to find the correct hand and foot holds that would get me to the top, but without the loose earth and rocks.  I actually enjoy climbing around these kinds of rocks, but at such a high elevation, I was a bit nervous.  A short time later though we arrived on top of the Judge.  It had been windy most of the way up the slope, but the top was incredibly windy and not a lot of room.  I found a little niche between a few of the rocks, and stayed there.   

The view was incredible!  We were 2739 metres up, and had a 360 degree view of the mountains around us, including Mt Assiniboine, the Bugaboos and the Kootenay river valley.  We could even see 2 forest fires far off in the distance; one to the north, and one to the south. Diana Lake below us was but a spot of color.  We discovered another beautiful blue color lake at the bottom of one of the other ridges far below.  I was actually at the top of a mountain, looking down at the tops of other mountains.  I had done this many times in the past, but this was the first time in years.  It felt amazing.....yet I feared getting down.

 I was absolutely terrified of going down.  I knew how we got up, and the thought of going down that way, in my mind, was impossible.  There was no way.  Dean assured me he had a surprise for me, and it wouldn't be so bad.  He was right.  We took a different route getting off The Judge, and although we still had to cross the slope of scree, it seemed somewhat easier coming down it than it did going up.  We hiked down off to the side of where we had coming up, so bypassed the ridge.  Basically we went straight down, heading towards the trail we had hiked on just before getting to Diana Lake.  After getting through the scree, and a small section of slope with vegetation, we came to another area that was quite slippery, but not dangerous like the scree.  We actually had some fun with it, and ran down, digging in our heels. After a nice descent in an avalanche gully that followed a small creek, then a beautiful meadow, we were back on the trail we had come up on.  Aaahhhh, flat solid ground.  We stopped momentarily to take it all in, and congratulate ourselves.  After hiking down for two hours, lots of good conversation, and bird watching, we were in the car heading home. 

I did it!  We both did it!  I read afterwards that many have tried getting to the Judge, but most turn back without reaching the summit.  On this day, I pushed myself in more ways than one.  It was a test of my physical strengths, as well as my mental strengths.  I was able to get over the fear of the bears and enjoy natures trail.  I was able to get through the pain in my legs, and keep control of my breath.  Along with Dean's constant assurance, I was able to talk myself through times where I felt terrified, and questioned making it to the top.  If given the opportunity to do it again, would I?  Absolutely not.  (well, maybe).  Do I regret doing it?  Absolutely not!!